Equinox/p2/Reusing Platform Metadata

This page outlines the current shape of the metadata for the "org.eclipse.platform.ide" product. This product is a subset of the Eclipse SDK. The SDK adds JDT, PDE, CVS and Help, but everything that requires special configuration exists in the base platform. This makes the platform ideal for general reuse.

The current RC1 metadata for org.eclipse.platform.ide looks something like this:

Using org.eclipse.platform.ide As-Is

In general, the org.eclipse.platform.ide is not attractive for reuse in other products as it includes product specific branding and settings. However, in the special case of products (like EPP) that look the same as eclipse but change the default eclipse.product, then we could reuse org.eclipse.platform.ide directly. The epp.product file would specify a program argument -product which would override the entry in the config.ini file. As well, because org.eclipse.platform.ide includes launcher, we should set the product build to not include launchers.

This would be done using a p2.inf file which should be placed beside the product file. The p2.inf file should also tell pde.build not to generate defaults CUs for start levels, because we will already get start levels from the platform.ide.